2023: A Year of Collaboration for MacArthur Foundation and our Partners

Looking back on 2023, the thing that stands out most to me is the value of collaboration. I believe we need friends, community, and solidarity to make progress on the issues facing our world today. And fortunately, it’s clear that many of our partners agree.

This was clear in how we worked at MacArthur this year, from unique grants to collaborative big bets. Here are a few examples of how we have worked together this year:

Local News

We have been excited this year to help lead Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Trusted local news and information is essential for a robust democracy and we need a coalition of enthusiastic donors at every level to change how America supports local news. This is what we are calling a collaborative Local News Big Bet, sparking bigger change by bringing people together on a single issue. We started with 22 donors, and a growing network of funders are supporting a local news movement—including the creation of place-based Press Forward Local Chapters across the country. We have together raised more than $500 million through this effort on behalf of local news and hope that will, in the coming five-plus years, end up exceeding $1 billion in funding. Time will tell if others will join us in rising to the challenge, but the start so far suggests we have good momentum in that direction.

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Climate Collaboration

The Invest in Our Future fund was a collaboration between eight climate funders that have so far pooled more than $180 million to help communities access the clean energy transition resources being made available by passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Investing in Solutions

Collaboration was at the heart of the SDG Loan Fund, which will leverage $1.1 billion in blended finance for projects and companies aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. MacArthur, together with Allianz Global Investors and FMO Investment Management, created a structure that enabled investors to come together for a shared vision at scale.

Sharing Essential Stories

We recently hosted a Staff screening of the incredible film Origin, by Ava DuVernay. She tells the compelling story of how Isabelle Wilkerson wrote the book Caste, connecting seemingly disparate threads across continents and with family and friends. The lessons it holds are moving. MacArthur was proud to help make telling this essential story possible. DuVernay used a new strategy to fund the film by turning to philanthropy; we joined other funders and collaborators to support the important project, and hopefully expand her impact.

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A Road Together

Our Chicago Commitment team, committed to testing models of trust-based philanthropy, worked with our regranting partner Field Foundation and participatory grantmakers to develop a new initiative, A Road Together (ART), to support small and mid-sized arts organizations in Chicago with a strong commitment to equity. The ART initiative with Field is a multimillion-dollar investment in Chicago's arts and culture sector made by MacArthur as part of our Culture, Equity, and the Arts program. Input and power sharing are essential to advancing racial and social equity through the arts. We announced the first set of grantees to enable more Chicagoans to dream and flourish while accessing platforms for art and cultural expression in their communities.

AI that Works for Society

Public-private collaborations are an important way to make progress on issues that are of critical public interest. MacArthur joined nine other philanthropies in a $200 million initiative focused on AI governance to benefit people and society, centering individuals and communities most at risk of harm; this was aligned with a framework that Vice President Kamala Harris shared to address the harms AI causes. The challenges of AI are an urgent call for change to establish regulation and guidelines for AI development.

Growing Accountability

A group of MacArthur grantees in Nigeria, the Joinbodi cohort, shares information and promotes civic participation and collective action to reduce corruption and enhance the fairness of elections. As new politicians took office in Nigeria this year, these civil society organizations examined trust in the political process. By working together, they are creating stronger anti-corruption norms.

Nuclear Networks

I spoke with Erika Gregory of N Square and the head of Horizon 2045 about the importance of nuclear experts collaborating with experts from other fields to promote experimentation and learning. More perspectives help challenge the status quo and to think in ways that better meet the needs of modern contexts.

Demonstrating Impact of Reform

Organizations that MacArthur supports provided research and analysis, and showed the impact of bail reform, which helped people better understand how the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act could affect the state. Illinois is the first state in the nation to ban cash bail entirely, and the growing body of evidence MacArthur grantees provided helped to show how we can preserve community safety while reducing harms caused by incarceration.

As we enter the new year, committed as ever to a more just, verdant, and peaceful world, I am deeply grateful for all our friends—organizations, Staff, creative individuals, and otherwise—for their inspiring work.